Scaling Up To Fast

Stephen Spoonamore, CEO of ABS Materials, maker of reactive glass that separates pollutants from water and air

We blew it on our first production scale up. Our glass product, Osorb, repels water, making it ideal for water treatment. The warning signs of a problem actually existed within initial production runs. But we were in "race mode" and did not see the warning signs. We were focused on increasing our production capacity from 5 grams of Osorb a month to 20 kilograms a month. It turned out that about 60% of the product coming out of the reactor was either non-functional or suboptimal for project needs. We called two clients that had been waiting for production to increase, owned and diagnosed the problem, and ate the additional costs. Both clients were understanding and are repeat customers.